Thalmor Edict on Reproduction - 4E 33
by joyofthejoui
Summary: Summerset has a population problem. The Thalmor aim to fix it. (Apocrypha written for r/teslore).


**Thalmor Edict on Reproduction - 4E 33**

It has come to our attention that many in Alinor hold incorrect beliefs about the sacred duty of bringing forth and raising children. Many otherwise well-educated and faithful mer still believe that our Ancestors smile on families who waste away precious decades of their children's lives negotiating a marriage contract. Even in the shadow of the Great Anguish, there are mer who insist that the sacred significance of the number Three means that three children is the perfect and natural limit for a family.

A wise stewardship of our resources and a care for all children born within Alinor has contributed to these beliefs, so the Thalmor does not condemn these mer, but firmly corrects them. In years of peace and prosperity, it was indeed wise to bring into the world only those children whose welfare could be properly ensured. Yet today, countless fields lie fallow, our orchards are choked in bramble, our ancestors' tombs and temples crumble in dusty neglect, and entire bloodlines are faced with extinction.

All mer of Alinor have the duty to raise up descendants for our ancestors. And yet many mer believe that childbearing is the privilege of the noblest lineages; they would rather never marry and conceive children than enter into a marriage with a partner whose bloodlines are not considered superior. Many mer never find a spouse because of this alleged inferiority of their blood.

This is a corruption forced on us by the evils of the outside world. The sacred Aldmeri blood was mingled in our past with the blood of men and fallen mer. For that reason, one of the first acts of the Thalmor in re-establishing this Dominion was to remove from our midst all who are not of the Blood of the Aldmer. Therefore, there is no tainted blood left within Alinor. The mer who opposes a child's marriage contract by denigrating the ancestry of the child's spouse is denying the Thalmor's Restoration of the Blood of the Aldmer. There is no justification for gainsaying the Thalmor's judgment on this matter. If such a mer does not attend to our correction, let them attend to the chastisements of the Divine Prosecution.

Similarly, there is no need and much harm in lengthy negotiations over marriage contracts. The Thalmor does not prohibit the traditional tests of compatibility, the examination of omens, and the preparations for a marriage, but there is no excuse for dragging these out over long years, sometimes even over decades. When the true motive behind such delay is greed, this delay is doubly shameful.

When a young couple are not robbed of the early years of their marriage, they have a longer time to grow together into that perfect partnership which will be the foundation of their parenthood. They will discover earlier whether they may easily bring children into the world, or should seek the assistance of the Aldarchs in supporting their fertility.

In raising children, many mer aspire to the sacred number of Three, and once they have achieved that number of children, they think their families perfect. Three is indeed a sacred number, but so is Five. Eight is also a sacred number.

Is it likely that the average mer be blessed with eight children? No, it is not. But if we truly are committed to the Path of Alaxon, it is wrong to cease striving towards perfection because we might fall short. Parents do not stop at one child for fear of having only two. If we do not avoid that worst of numbers, there is no justification for stopping at three children for fear of never reaching five.

To encourage the pursuit of true familial perfection, the Thalmor has instituted an endowment for every fourth (or more) child born to a couple in Alinor. With this provision for our children's welfare, every family, no matter their status, may welcome into their midst another child.

_Decreed by the Thalmor Council in the Eleventh Year of the Glorious Aldmeri Dominion, Alinor._

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**End-notes: **This piece has been in the works for a while, comprising my thoughts on the contradiction between the Third Aldmeri Dominion's actions and the apparent low fertility of the Altmer. It just does not make sense that an expansionist Imperialist government that took power after a massive de-population event would head into a huge war with the Empire and be preparing for another one, if they really couldn't reproduce their numbers.

As has been mentioned a lot in these discussions, the sages in Morrowind said of Elven fertility.

_Elven cultures and social institutions are stable and persistent; Elven nations are neither economically expansive nor militarily adventurous. Elves are conditionally fertile - that is, they only conceive when population pressure is low - so expanding populations do not force them to explore or war with neighbors._

How that is achieved is up for debate - perhaps their fertility is naturally low but can be magically supplemented? - but the Third Aldmeri Dominion is absolutely economically expansive and militarily adventurous.

I've also been thinking of how a lot of the traditional practices of marriage and childrearing, as seen in ESO's Summerset, would be of no use to the modern Thalmor. You can't quickly replenish numbers if people are hanging around not getting married or delaying children. The purge of those "not of the Blood of the Aldmer" as mentioned by Lathenil would be a perfect pretext for claiming the Thalmor have purified the blood of the Isles, so long testing and detective work (as seen in ESO) is not needed in negotiating a marriage.

The Sacred Numbers' relation to childbearing are inspired by the ESO text:_Thoughts on the Sacred Numbers_, which includes the line

_Three is the Number of the Prime Celestials, as embodied in the sun and the two moons. It is also the number of my perfect daughters, which is why we shall produce no other heirs._

and explains some other numbers: good or bad. It amused me that to get to three children, you'd need to pass through the terrible two.

And lastly, subsidies for the later children in a family were a matter of policy in a lot of Japanese domains during the Edo Period, to combat a similar population problem.

_Originally posted on teslore on reddit._


End file.
